Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Good Bye Joaquín!

A few months after Eduardo, today is my turn to say good bye. I willget back to Spain 5 years after we started Panoramio. I part withmixed feelings, Google is everything you've heard of and more, andPanoramio has been the biggest project in my life. But a combinationof personal reasons and the desire to create something new were at theend more powerful.

Instead of boring you to death with some nostalgia about two kids thathad absolutely no idea on what they were getting into, I'll insteadbore you to death with a list of people to thank: Eduardo Manchón forjoining me in this crazy race, Jose Florido for being the third kidwithout a clue, John Hanke for believing that we actually knew what wewere doing, Dan Dennison for helping a half incompetent softwareengineer (yours truly) navigate the mazes of Google's networkconfiguration, Bernhard Seefeld for all your tips and drinks in theearly days, Frederik Schaffalitzky for providing an unsuspected backupwhen I "lost" 30000 photos, and of course to all these that joined ourteam, and very specially to Erik, Roger, Gyuri, Ana, Gerard, Raphaeland Fernando.

But my biggest thank you goes to you all. I'm sorry for all my pastmistakes, as you were the unfortunate victims, and I'm thankful forall your support over the years.

A while ago, in the last Hungarian meeting, an old lady came to Gyuriand thanked him, because she won one of the Panoramio contests. Shedidn't expected it and she was thrilled. You're the reason forPanoramio. We made some people feel awesome, and I'm thankful forthat.